Documentation of Firearm Safety Screening During Emergency Department Visits for Assault-Related Injury

Abstract

Assault-injured youth have an increased risk of future violence. Identifying firearm access among youth in the emergency department (ED) creates an opportunity for interventions aimed at reducing future violent events. We performed this study to determine the extent to which children with assault-related injuries are screened for access to firearms in the ED. We performed a retrospective chart review of all medical records from adolescent ED visits to an academic, tertiary care pediatric hospital in Washington DC with ICD-10 codes related to assault in a 3-month period. We found that among 252 assault-related encounters, none had any documentation of firearm access in the provider note, social work note, or psychiatry consultant note. Therefore, we concluded that firearm access screening is rarely documented in ED visits among patients who present for an assault, highlighting an important missed opportunity for firearm access screening among this high-risk group.

Keywords

firearm violence prevention adolescents assault-injured youth

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